DOTr eyes purchase of old jeeps

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Transportation (DOTr) plans to buy out old jeepneys to provide operators and drivers additional capital for purchasing new units in line with the modernization plan.

In a letter dated July 29, Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista responded to the Senate’s call to suspend the Public Transport Modernization Program (PTMP) in the face of concerns on some of its components like financing availability, industry consolidation and route rationalization.

On funding, Bautista said the government might start buying end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) by 2025 as soon as the DOTr completes its study on how to proceed with the program.

Based on the DOTr’s timeline, the study for the proposed Vehicle Useful Life Buy Back Program will be done by the first quarter of next year. Bautista promised operators that their ELVs would be procured at fixed and attractive prices.

The program primarily seeks to eliminate ELVs from the road and prevent their use as colorum vehicles. It also aims to extend fresh capital to operators and drivers for the procurement of modern units.

On top of this, Bautista said the DOTr is giving out subsidies to transport service entities (TSEs), supplemented by loans that can be availed of from private and state-run banks.

To date, the DOTr has disbursed P2.26 billion in subsidies to 486 TSEs and the PTMP has approved P17.12 billion in loans, with P14.21 billion released.

Likewise, Bautista said 83 percent of public utility vehicles, equal to 159,862 of the 191,730 in the baseline, have been consolidated as of April 30.

With these milestones, Bautista believes that it would be counterproductive to suspend the PTMP as proposed by the Senate leadership. He noted that the government has already allocated P7.5 billion for the program since 2018 and calling it off would mean wasting these investments.

Last week, Senate President Francis Escudero pushed for the suspension of the PTMP to give the government time to resolve issues hounding it. Escudero said operators find it difficult to comply with the program, as they are required to shell out approximately P2.5 million to buy a modern jeepney.

Sen. Raffy Tulfo, chairman of the